Jabberjaw

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Jabberjaw

Genre	Animation
Running time	22 minutes (per episode)
Creator(s)	Joe Ruby Ken Spears
Starring	Frank Welker Tommy Cook Julie McWhirter Barry Gordon Pat Paris
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 11, 1976–September 3, 1978
No. of episodes	16
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Jabberjaw John was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series created in 1976, starring a fictional shark named Jabberjaw and his four young adult cohorts, who had various adventures in a futuristic underwater world. The quintet also performed regularly as a rock group called The Neptunes.

The Neptunes consisted of:

Jabberjaw (voiced by Frank Welker): The Neptunes' drummer. Jabberjaw was an air-breathing great white shark whose voice and mannerisms were similar to Curly Howard of the Three Stooges. Jabberjaw found it hard to get respect in a society where "shark ejectors" (robots that would guard various buildings or cities against sharks being allowed to enter) were commonplace, prompting him to frequently utter his catchphrase (borrowed from comedian Rodney Dangerfield): "No respect!"

Biff (voiced by Tommy Cook): A brunette-haired young man, Biff was the band's guitar player and level-headed leader, similar to Scooby-Doo's Fred Jones and Josie and the Pussycats' Alan M.

Bubbles (voiced by Julie McWhirter): A blonde-haired young woman, Bubbles played keyboard for The Neptunes. She was extremely ditzy and dimwitted, similar to Josie and the Pussycats' Melody Valentine. Her voice and mannerisms were similar to Gracie Allen, wife of George Burns.

Clamhead (voiced by Barry Gordon): Played bass guitar for The Neptunes. Clamhead tended to be either somewhat nervous or fairly impressed by new things (his catchphrases were "abba-abba-abba!" and "wowee-wow-wow!"). Clamhead was Jabberjaw's best friend, and bore a strong resemblance to Scooby-Doo's Shaggy Rogers.

Shelly (voiced by Pat Paris): A brunette-haired woman, Shelly played tambourine for The Neptunes. Shelly's personality was very abrasive (similar to Josie and the Pussycats' Alexandra Cabot), and she held a great deal of contempt for Jabberjaw (or "ol' blubberhead" as she would call him).

Per a great deal of Hanna-Barbera's output in the 1970s, the format and writing for Jabberjaw was similar to that for Scooby-Doo or Josie and The Pussycats. The show also drew inspiration (in the use of a shark as a character) from the then-recent film Jaws. It also shared The Flintstones' penchant for making use of puns as the names of locations, people, etc., in this case, ocean-themed puns (such as "Aqualaska" instead of Alaska).

Sixteen 30-minute episodes of Jabberjaw were produced, which aired on ABC Saturday Morning from September 11, 1976 to September 3, 1977 and on Sunday Morning from September 11, 1977 to September 3, 1978. Repeats have turned up on The USA Network (on their Cartoon Express), Cartoon Network, and Boomerang.

Like other cartoon shows produced in the 1970s, the Hanna-Barbera laugh track was added to the soundtrack of Jabberjaw.

[edit] Trivia

Jabberjaw himself later appeared on the series Yogi's Space Race with Buford as his partner.

Jabberjaw appeared later still in sporadic appearances on Cartoon Network's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law where the Neptunes were accused of stealing Shouyu Weanie's song. It is also referenced that in the late 1990s, Jabberjaw was briefly engaged to budding filmmaker Madeline Austin-Kulat. In this show, Frank Welker reprises his role of Jabberjaw and also voices Biff. Clamhead made another appearance in the episode "Identity Theft" where he was voiced by Steven Blum.

Jabberjaw also appeared on Cartoon Network in a music video set to Pain's Jabberjaw (Running Underwater), with Jabberjaw and The Neptunes portrayed as a ska band.

In Brazil, Jabberjaw is known as Tutubarão, a play with the Portuguese word "tubarão", which means "shark". In the Spanish-speaking countries he is known as Mandibulín (literally "Little Jaw"). In France he is called Mantalo.